Wednesday, March 25, 2015

I Hate It When That Happens

A pickup truck secured by its hitch to a cargo ship seems like a bad idea under any circumstance, but we are not experts in these matters.

And neither was the crew aboard the MSC Ilona after they ended up reeling in a pickup truck around 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Port of Baltimore, dragging the vehicle from land to sea in a matter of minutes - with the driver still inside.

Luckily, the driver was able to escape - jumping out before the truck hit the water, said First Sgt. Glend McGuire, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority police.
. . .
"The procedure is…they have large ropes that come off the ships – and they throw those onto land. They are hooked up to pickup trucks," McGuire said, breaking it down into non-expert terms. The trucks tether the lines on the dock, he said, and multiple pickup trucks do this at the same time. The process happens in reverse when a ship is ready to leave.

On Saturday, as the Ilona was ready to head out to sea, there was a miscommunication and the crew on board the ship thought all of the trucks had released their lines -- but one was still connected.

"He was in the process of doing it," McGuire said. "So [the ship] started pulling the pickup truck toward the water. The driver was still in the pickup truck."